The Family Way
by FabaFey
Summary: Something that popped into my head of it’s own accord. Zoe feels poorly after Wash dies…and not cause he’s gone. MalInara, SimonKaylee, hints at Rayne
1. Might Be

Zoë didn't feel well. Not all together uncommon since Wash had died. Didn't feel much like eating. Didn't much feel like laughing. Her reason to laugh was gone. No more buying silly dinosaurs, or little toys and games. Wash wasn't there to give her that kid in a candy store smile. There weren't flowers placed on her pillow when they were on a planet where they grew pretty. The flowers, she'd stare at when on land, only served to remind her of the one she'd put on his grave. Thinking on that made her want to not get out of bed some days.

Two months after she noticed something. She was tired. Couldn't get enough sleep no matter how hard she tried. Once or twice she'd got so dizzy she'd had to sit herself down till the room stopped spinning. And as much as she didn't feel like eating… she was starved. When she did stop by the galley for a bite ( if it agreed to stay down that is), River was usually waiting for her. She'd smile and say hello, attempt to go through the motions of happiness, like she did with everyone else. This new sort of not feeling well had her on edge. There was a thought dancing in her mind that that she refused to let form. Never really worked with River though. So eventually she'd stopped trying.

"You think you are? Did you forget the trying?" River giggled to her one night, when Zoë was sitting with her in the galley, trying to hold down a bowl of protein mush.

"Trying? We weren't really ready for that… Wash just liked the practice." Zoë laughed darkly, "But yes. I think I might just be… in the family way."

"Absolutely." River nodded

"Sure about that then? I mean should I ask your brother?"

"It would be good. Him being a doctor and all. You'll need one of those… healthy as an equine thus far though." River smiled and hopped up onto the counter. Zoë tried once or twice more to eat the mush. But suddenly she had a taste for an apple. One of them green ones that Kaylee might still have in the cupboard. That sounded mighty good right about now. River was already fishing in the cupboards, her back to the room kneeling on the counter.

"I'd like one too. Tiny little toes little fingers funny little ears…But eating for two, you get one first." River mused.

"If there's only one left we're splitting it, Auntie River." Zoë grinned. She was happier now. This baby wasn't Wash she knew… but it was proof that he loved her. Part of him was with her always anyway. This just made that part a little bigger. She might not be laughing yet. But her smile was as big as ever.

Mal strolled in and looked at the two women sharing an apple. He stopped when Zoë smiled at him. That was most positively something he hadn't seen in a long while.

"What exactly have you two got cooking that I need to know about?"

"Wash left her a present. Not very big. Not yet… It's gonna get bigger!" River said in a sing song voice and danced out of the room.

"A growing kind of present?" He mused.

"Yep."

"Now ain't that somethin? Little Wash you'd better not give me any… much trouble." He wagged his finger at her belly. Zoë laughed so hard she almost spit out her bite of apple.

Kaylee waited in the doorway cautiously, happy to hear Zoë laugh, but not wanting to spoil the moment.

"Come on in, ni zi. Got some news."

"Were it a wave?" Kaylee asked brightly.

"Nope. Not that kinda news." Mal said. "Crew's getting a little bigger."

"We picking someone up?"

Mal shook his head. The grin he wore ear to ear told her something was up. A good sort of something. River had been murmuring about little hands and tiny ears. Something went click in Kaylee's brain.

"Zoë are you? Ohhh… Cause ummm… I'm kinda…" Kaylee blushed.

"Not feeling well?" Zoë offered. It was the first thing she'd thought too. She thought that she wasn't well, when it turned out she was.

"Sort… queasy likes."

"Remind me to get a shot gun next time we set down." Mal grumbled.

"Wha'fer?" Jayne grumbled, coming in to lay his head down

'Simon'n'Kaylee done got themselves pregnant. Zoë too. But I expect Wash had a lot more to do with that."

"Oh. I got a shot gun." Jayne offered. "Kaylee you don't mind your fancy Dr all shot up?"

She glared at him, still blushing.

"Then I think we're in need of a Sheppard on this boat."

Zoe had stopped paying attention by that point. She had a kind of soft smile, her hand on her belly.

"_Well, Little Wash_," she thought, "_You've got a mighty strange family. But we'll be all right._"

FIN

AN:

Might be more to this. Depends on how I feel later. Kind of in a not so good mood. Reviews help! Helpfuly review…please? I'll give you a pony! Wait… I don't have any ponies… I'll owe you a pony then!


	2. Blue Yarn

**AN:**I have plot bunnies living under my bed. And they keep getting people pregnant. I've named the biggest one Fezzik. How could I not? I mean a bunny the size of a Rottweiler? Come on…

Firefly is not mine… otherwise Zoë wouldn't be a widow. A random giant plastic dinosaur would have saved my favorite character (next to Mal that is)… no idea how. But I'm sure duct tape would have been involved. Anway… here's the chapter.

"When can we tell which clothes get?" Kaylee asked softly. She and her husband, Simon were lying in their bunk, curled up in the big fluffy down conforter that River had bought them as a wedding present. They'd just returned from a trip to a snowy planet. Just a fun trip, which was rare. But it had been Inara's idea. A vacation she'd called it. Kaylee figured it was a way to get them all some fresh air. And for Inara to spend time with Mal.

"When you're as far along as Zoë is right now. You're behind her a little." he mused.

"Not by much." She pouted and placed his hand over her belly. It was pushing out much rounder now. Her being five months along now. But Zoë was bigger, seeing she had two. She was lucky. Two little ones, just alike for the price of one.

"Yes, but Little Buddha there was round the wrong way last time. And Zoë will have her bundels a tiny bit sooner anyway. She's got two… but she is tall… have to calculate…" River murmured as she was knitting a blanket for the babies.

"Feel that one bao bei?"

"I did!"

"Soccer player!" River yelped, throwing down the knitting (which in truth looked more like a large pink knot at the moment) and ran from the room.

"What… ahhh never mind." Kaylee sighed, "She still calling you Little Buddha?" she asked her belly. The name that River had given her baby, when they'd discovered it was sitting like one of Inara's pictures of The Buddha. Crossed legged. She snuggled close to Simon, sliding her hand along his arm. She nuzzled into his neck.

"Kaylee…I don't know if… maybe we shouldn't."

"Well it's not like I could get pregnant or anything." She rolled her eyes.

"I wasn't thinking about that. Ever obviously." he chuckled. "The lock on the hatch is broken. Remember?"

River's head suddenly appeared upside down in the hatch.

"I fixed it last week you boob. Kiss your wife."

"I like when she tells you to do that."

"My sister is seeming less and less crazy all the time."

"Very smart that sister of yours." Kaylee agreed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Up on the bridge, sitting next to Jayne, River laughed suddenly.

"What's all the giggles for, ni zi?"

"I'm gonna have a big family." she sighed.

"You planning on getin knocked up too?"

"Nope. Not anytime soon. But she can't keep her hands off…"

"Ahhh now gorramit shut up, Crazy! That's lil'Kaylee. Don'care if she is married proper. Still the closet thing I got to a sister. So jus'hush."

"It's true. How do you think she got pregnant in the first place? Did your mommy tell you a stork brings the baby?"

"S'at what they told you in that fancy'cademy or your's? Cause I could set you straight if you like."

"Captain would throw you in the airlock."

"True. Later then. After 'Nara gets up the guts to say something. Mal's bull headed. He won't talk to her. " Jayne grumbled. For a merc he could be surprisingly insightful. Which was why River liked to sit and listen to him think, to listen for the random epiphanies that came tumbling through his brain.

"Tell you a secret?"

"Huh?"

"I need blue yarn." She giggled and skipped out of the room.

**AN: **Thus far I owe three ponies! I want to owe more! Review! And someday… when you least expect it… a pony shall be standing in your front yard. Two if you help me think of names!


	3. What's in a name?

**AN:** I have no idea where this story came from really. But it'll keep coming as long as there are reviews. There is a nod to a reviewer in here. See if you can spot it.

I owneth not the Firefly nor it's characters. makes sad face…eth

"Sir, for the last time," Zoë sighed, "I am not naming that child Malcolm."

She laughed as her month old son Isaac blew spit bubbles at her from River's arms.

"Why not?" mal asked indignantly.

"She's a girl."

"S'good name." He muttered and then shrugged. Taking Isaac from River, he swayed a little as he carried the boy over to the cabinet to fetch the bottle Zoë said he would be needing soon.

"He has a point you know." Inara said to the room. She was flipping absently through a book that Kaylee had found on they're last visit with her parents. A book with hundreds of names.

"I know she does. She just ain't found it yet." Zoë sighed, adjusting the blanket that River had made around her daughter. The baby cooed at her, smiling, waving her tiny hands. This little girl was looking more and more like her father every day.

"How's she gonna tell you what her own name is when she can't talk yet? Huh, Miss Smart Pants? Think on that a little." Mal quipped, popping the bottle into Isaac's mouth.

Jayne came stomping into the galley and sat down on the counter with River.

"Isaac smiled at me today!" River told him proudly.

"Lil'wiggler smiles a'the lights in the ce'lin." He snapped. He hadn't touched the babies once. Just stared at them, very quietly, with a soft sort of smile on his face.

"Uncle Jayne isn't a grouch. He's just a chicken." River smiled at the baby in Zoë's arm. Zoë was dancing her daughter around a little, hoping to get a smile. It hurt to see those little blue eyes light up sometimes. The girl was more Wash than her brother. But she wouldn't trade that smile for anything.

"You won't break her you know." Zoe shrugged, offering the girl to the merc. She'd noticed how shy he was round the babies. A month of them taking up more room than anything that small had a right to, and he hadn't so much as held they're hands.

"Nah."

"Taker her, Dummy. That way Zoe will cook us lunch." River said, looking annoyed.

"I will at that. But only if I have my arms free." Zoe said.

Jayne looked to Inara, then Mal. But they were no help. The infant in Zoe's arms was staring at him. River pushed herself off the counter, took the tiny girl from her mother, and placed her carefully in Jayne's lap.

"She won't bite." River said, hopping back onto the counter next to him.

Jayne simply stared at the tiny being. She'd reached up and trigger finger in her bitsy little hand, and was now hanging on like she'd die if she didn't. Seemed like the entire verse was holding still for a moment. Then she smiled at him and kicked her feet.

Zoe got some things from a cupboard, Inara kept flipping through her book, and Mal wiped up the milk that had escaped Isaac's mouth. River made faces at Issac when Mal danced him by. Jayne stuck his tongue out and puffed his cheeks. He was rewarded with a peel of laughter from the little girl that didn't quite sound real.

Kaylee came waddling into the galey looking tired, followed closely by Simon who looked half dead.

"Can I be done yet?" Kaylee asked miserably, sitting awkwardly down next to Inara. Simon more like collapsed next to his eight months pregnant wife.

"Two more weeks, bao bei." Inara laughed, "And when Zoë had the twins you seemed so eager to keep your baby right were it is."

"That was when I could see my feet." The pregnant woman groused.

"I do remember that bein a bother." Zoe agreed, "But they're worth it."

"Even if they ain't got proper names yet." Mal grumbled.

"She'll get one. Just hasn't…"

"I know I know. She ain't told you what it is yet. Bunch a goshe if you ask me."

"That one there did it. He laughed first. So Issac. And Marcus for my father. Hoban for his, Washburn cause that's our last name." Zoe stated. "Issac Hoban Marcus Washburn."

"Big name you got there, Lil'Wash." Mal said seriously. I'm gussin your sister over there will need one to equal."

Issac gurgled at him.

"Sarah." Jayne blurted out.

They all turned to stare at him, except for River. She'd been staring at him, smiling for a few minutes.

"Name'er Sarah." He said, still staring at the baby, who was now tucked in the crook of his arm, fast asleep.

"Means Princess." River mused.

"I like that. Sarah." Zoë nodded.

"So she has a name now?" Simon asked from his position on the bench laying his face down on the table.

"Sarah huh?" Mal asked, "Well, Miss Sarah, it's a pleasure to finally have something to call you."

Zoe smiled for a second, then laughed. She walked over to Janye, taking her daughter from him.

"Sarah Janye Washburn, you have a name." She laughed.


End file.
